The NHS is drowning

Nye Bevan was the son of a coal miner and a campaigner for social justice. He became a labour politician and minister of health in the Attlee post-war government and spearheaded the establishment of the national health service. A service free at the point of need. Now, 70 years on, the NHS as a service is being slowly dismantled, run to the ground and sold off to the highest bidder. Nye Bevan would be appalled. We all should be appalled.

All that good will and honest values that created the service are being eroded and replaced with a dog eat dog mentality, where profit is the main driving force, and everyone is a commodity. It seems that society is being taught the price of everything, but the value of nothing.

We must fight to save our NHS. This is more than just about the NHS it’s about what kind of world we want to live in.

Hospitals, GPs, mental health, ambulance and community services are all on their knees.

Private companies are gaining an ever greater foothold within the NHS. Years of pay restraint has seen the value of NHS staff salaries reduce by 14% since 2010.

The government’s Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) are a smokescreen for a massive programme of hospital and community service closures, and its latest instrument for privatisation.

Privatisation far from saving the taxpayer money will cost us more money, as profits line the pockets of corporate millionaires. You can see similar examples in the prison and rail services, none of which have benefitted from privatisation, quite the opposite.

Join national demonstration. 4 March – Assemble 12pm Tavistock Square, London WC1. March through London to Parliament.